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Hare Trigger
Hare Trigger is a 1945 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short starring Bugs Bunny directed by Friz Freleng. It marks the first appearance of Yosemite Sam, who appears as a train robber. Mel Blanc does both characters' voices. The title is a play on "hair trigger", referring to any weapon or other device with a sensitive trigger. Plot After opening credits underscored by an instrumental of "Cheyenne", an old-fashioned train is seen rolling along through the desert. It passes another train going around a utility pole, and voices are heard repeating "Bread and butter". Bugs is riding in the mail car of a train, singing a nonsense song called, when a pint-sized bandit attempts to rob the train (with the underscore playing stereotypical "villain music"), only to have it pass clear over his head. He then calls for his horse, which he needs a rolling step-stair to mount. He catches up and boards the train and begins to rob it while the mail clerk wraps himself in a package marked DON'T OPEN 'TIL XMAS. The bandit accidentally throws Bugs Bunny in his sack. Bugs assumes he's Jesse James. The bandit scoffs and tells him (and the audience) who he actually is: "I'm Yosemite Sam, the meanest, toughest, rip-roarin'-est, Edward Everett Horton-est hombre what ever packed a six-shooter!" (This pattern of Sam introducing himself to Bugs and the audience would continue in other cartoons.) Bugs tells Sam that there is another tough guy in the train packing a "seven-shooter", and Sam goes looking for him – and he is actually Bugs in disguise. Various fights ensue, as each character temporarily gets the upper hand for a while. At one point, Bugs thinks he has vanquished Sam, and yells "So long, screwy, see ya in St. Louis!" in a line that will be echoed in Bugs Bunny Rides Again and A Feather in His Hare. After another skirmish, Bugs tricks Sam into dashing into a lounge car in which a horrific fight is occurring, actually stock film footage of a stereotypical western saloon fight. With the sounds of crashes and bangs in the background, Bugs calmly sings "Sweet Georgia Brown" to himself. Sam emerges tottering, banged and bruised, to a comical instrumental of "Battle Cry of Freedom", and a race-based gag occurs that is subtle enough it is usually left intact in network showings: Bugs effects the stereotyped voice of an African-American train porter, and has the dazed Sam convinced he's supposed to disembark the train, piling him up with luggage; Sam even hands Bugs a silver coin as a tip, and Bugs says, "Thank you, suh!" As Sam steps off the moving train, the mail-drop hook grabs him and temporarily whisks him off the train. But he gets back on board somehow. Finally, Sam has Bugs tied up, dangling from a rope, weighted down by an anvil, and fiendishly cutting through the rope, while the train is passing over a gorge. The screen fills with the words the narrator (also Mel Blanc, in pretty much his natural voice) is saying, "Is this the end of Bugs Bunny? Will our hero be dashed to bits on the jagged rocks below?" and so on. Then Bugs walks across the screen, dressed in top hat and tails, carrying a bag full of gold (reward money), and dragging the tied-up villain behind him, mocking the on-screen words ("Will he be doomed to utter destruction and be rendered non compos mentis?"). Bugs closes by turning to the audience and repeating a popular radio catch-phrase from Red Skelton's "Mean Widdle Kid": "He don't know me vewy well, do he?" as a bar of Kingdom Coming plays on the track at iris-out. Notes * A character similar to Sam was the southern sheriff seen in Stage Door Cartoon (1944), also directed by Freleng. * Bugs and Sam would square off again in a western setting, three years later, in Bugs Bunny Rides Again. * The voice Mel Blanc uses at the ending on Bugs Bunny is the same one he used on Tweety. *First Warner Bros. cartoon with full credits. *Also the first Bugs Bunny cartoon with the "Bugs Bunny in" opening. *This is also the first cartoon where the Merrie Melodies' theme song "Merrily We Roll Along" was shortened. The rendition would be used until 1955. In the DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, this cartoon appears, unrestored, as part of a 1990 TV special called What's Up Doc? A Salute to Bugs Bunny. The restored version showed up in Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6. Video See also *List of Bugs Bunny cartoons External Links Hare Trigger at SuperCartoons.net Hare Trigger at B99.TV Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons Category:Yosemite Sam Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:1945 Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts